Has behaviour gotten worse?

[bandthenjust]

Hi everyone, just wanted to know your thoughts.

Would you say the behaviour of children in general has gone downhill in the classroom? If so, what do you think the cause of it is?

This afternoon I was being nosey and read through some of the threads on this board; some from teachers who are sick of the behaviour of pupils, and their stories were awful.
I stopped nursery-nursing about ten years ago, mainly because I was sick of the way nurseries operated. There was always a few kids that were disruptive, but never on the same level as what I've heard on here and other places.
I volunteered in my daughter's former year 1 class last year, and what I witnessed was unbelievable! One of the teachers at the time said it's 'across the board '.
Would you say it is?

Thanks Bestseller, I don't think an y schools like that exist in my area, though they're definitely neede d. The fact that kids feel like they need to carry weapons, or drugs, or whatever is sad. There's obviously a lot going on behind the scenes.
Some of these stories are terrible. You all must REALLY enjoy your jobs (the majority of the time ) to be able to put up with it!

bandthenjust
Only speaking for myself but I enjoy it because the vast vast majority of children and parents are reasonable and supportive and lovely to work with. I have a great school who support staff and don't expect children's education to be ruined by keeping disruotive students in class (we have excellent SEND provision by the way before the inevitable bad behaviour is always SEND arguments start).

Other places I've worked I could have left teaching because the loud minority wete still the minority but we're talking a third of a cohoet size. It was hellish. Parents screaming at me for daring to tell their child they had to hand in work of an acceptable standard, thinking that "personality clash" was an acceptable away to explain away their child's awful attitude and blame the teacher. It was draining and made me seriously consider quitting.

Ahh yes a parent did explain their child's behaviour as my fault because "I don't know him".

Lol, so if you knew him, the issue would be solved? Damn...

I think it has and smart phones have impacted on concentration

Name changed for obvious reasons.

Behaviour is awful. I spent the last 15 years working in a so called middle class school which has its head in then sand with regards to behaviour. The management are ineffective... they walk past behaviour in the corridors that they should be confronting. I know of several staff who have been knocked clean off their feet by pupils running rampage in the social areas.
Myself... Well I've taken a crow bar off a pupil who was wandering with it. I've had pupils I didn't teach come into my room and run about and 'hide ' in cupboards. When they were removed by management they came back 5 mins later and repeated.
I've had small fireworks thrown in class. the head came on that occasion and the pupil (a 12 year old) wouldn't hand over the rest as why should he they were paid for with his money.
I've been sworn at, spat at, threatened and had pupils in my face whilst heavily pregnant.
My final straw was a 12 year old asking me for a 'suck off' whilst I was actually trying to teach. They accompanying mime and the complete inability again of management to deal with it ( bad home life, poor soul etc etc) drove me out of the profession.
And this was a school that is supposedly the council's best. The results were expected but the kids in the majority did bugger all to achieve them.
I'm now working in a creative field and I'm so much happier😁

Everything that noblegiraffe said.

Everything seems up for negotiation. That ‘would you like to wear the blue jumper today or the yellow one?’ style of always giving a small child a choice, beloved of parenting manuals, backfires when they get to school and there is no choice. You sit down, get your pencil and write the date and title. I’ve had small children ask me if they HAVE to do the work. Yes you do. That’s what you’re here for. I’m not your mum, no choices today.

Interesting. Not a teacher but I wonder if one reason is that people don't expect school, education, qualifications to get them anywhere any more. I mean for my parents generation it (good O levels, A levels etc) was a real and practical route out of poverty. I have the feeling that now it isn't seen as that (uni too expensive, and you can struggle to find work even with a degree) so people think 'what's the point' and respect for teachers goes down accordingly - vicious circle.

Shocking, yet not all that surprising, sadly. Especially in light of threads like one on here at the moment where a poster asked whether she was giving fair consequences to her DS who had just been incredibly rude and totally trashed his room in a temper, and quite a few posters told her that she should give him a big hug and clear it up for with him.

Glad my DD was home ed/online schooled.

I agree about the choice thing for small children. My dear brother seems to go for this type of parenting. They have a lovely ds who seems to rule the roost.

God yes, the endless negotiation.

Plus, no one seems to talk firmly anymore. I give a pupil a firm instruction, they tell me I'm 'shouting in their face'. I don't shout. But I am firm, and I don't enter into negotiations. And they just aren't used to it.

Also, no-one has a spare minute these days (myself included) so parents tend to do a lot for their children to speed things along. And then I see this in class. Today, I had 'Miss, can you get me a pen' from a 12 year old. The box of pens is on my desk. 'Yes, help yourself' I replied, to big huffs and 'can't you just get me one'

I think there is a lot of laziness in kids .... they don't know what a days hard work is and it's about time school did something like hard core volunteering!

You can see kid with no core strength, no stamina, and have an expectation of being waited on.

We need to tire them out and give them more exercise and fresh air.

Parents should have an agreement for 'telling a child no, waiting their turn, to think for themselves ..... even basics Miss I found a pen what should I do with it?

As a supply teacher in primary, I get to see a lot of variety in how schools manage behaviour, from the language used to the rewards and sanctions. There are schools with very challenging children in tough catchment areas that are great to work in because they have effective, tailored systems and SLT back up teachers in implementing. There are schools in lovely areas with far fewer challenges that are a nightmare, because of the arrogance, rudeness and ‘ rights without responsibilities’ cohorts of children.
One of the satisfying aspects of supply is that you can choose where you work. I do think that behaviour has changed over the last few decades, and schools need to find ways of adapting to that.

Definitely there is a change in attitude. I laughed out loud the other day when a kid asked “do we have to?” - as though the lesson was up for negotiation!

Kids have no tolerance of being bored at all anymore - so many have no experience of it and they can’t cope with doing anything that isn’t constantly stimulating. Of course I want to teach interesting lessons and I’m not suggesting a lot of boredom is a good thing, but not every child will find every lesson fascinating and a significant number of them seem to feel that school is there to provide wall to wall entertainment so when expected to learn how to use apostrophes or whatever, they are outraged. And, sure, I could take them down to the Sports Hall and bounce a basketball while we shout our sentences to place the punctuation but I can’t do that every lesson, every day. Sometimes you have to sit down and bloody well write something! Sometimes you have to listen! Sometimes you can’t discover the whole lesson for yourself whilst the teacher ‘facilitates’ on the side! When I was young, my parents didn’t devote the entire weekend to entertaining me and my teachers didn’t bend over backwards to make every lesso interactive and engaging and exciting. So I learned a sustained attention span and developed an imagination and some independent thinking skills. I think the combination of parents providing a continuous carousel of activities to stimulate and socialise their children from birth and teachers being expected to be entertainers, kids have no resilience and no ability to push themselves to work hard.